Let's Play a Death Game
by Alexander Butters
Summary: A story about Matt, Mello, and Near. But Near is acting...insane, muttering about a Death Note.  No parings. Rated T for death.  Surprise ending.


11/11/10

...

Today is a beautiful, crisp day: The sun is glowing, the clouds are vanishing in the wind, and small children are kicking leaves in their own front yards, laughing in the bliss of childhood, their parents standing in the doorway with a rake.

Birds are singing to no-one, fluttering their wings as they hop from branch to branch, tree to tree. Acorns are seen dropping to the earth; a squirrel rushes over and stuffs one into its cheek before vanishing in the bushes.

A cool wind blows, stirring the birds into action; in union, they take flight to the sky, chirping and cawing, the sound of their wings similar to a waterfall; loud, uneven, yet calming to listen to. These birds pass by a large building known simply as the Wammy House, which is an orphanage for both the gifted and the unwanted.

Locked in the lazy warmth of his dorm, a young adult groans upon waking, casting a dull-eyed gaze up at the bedroom window. He watches as the last bird vanishes out of sight before he drops his head back into the pillow.

Yawning, he slowly removes the tangled blankets from his body, kicking them into the floor. Exposed to the elements, he shivers slightly before standing up in the room. He takes his goggles from off of his nightstand and puts them on before inching his way past the small, yet dirty, piles of clothes and candy wrappers, heading to the walk-in closet.

He flicks on a light and grabs the first thing he sees; a black shirt, orange vest, blue jean shorts, and striped stockings.

By the time he gets dressed, he is feeling much more lively.

With a violent jerk of his head to the left, he loosens the strained muscles in his neck with a loud crack, then lets out a relieved sigh. He leaves the room, opening the door with a patient turn of the knob.

Standing half-in the hallway, he turns his head to the left, down the hall, past the bathroom door, and to the youngest boy's room, then to the right, where the older boy slept, a stolen "do not enter" sign nailed to his room-door.

Also to the right is a staircase that leads downstairs, directly to the front door. Or, once down, you could make a left into the living room, or a right into the kitchen, which loops around to another hallway, a bathroom, and then the living room again.

His stomach growls suddenly, and he walks towards the stairs.

Just then, a loud thud is heard coming from the youngster's room. With a frown, he looks over to the door, as if expecting a massive Donkey Kong or something to break out. But he knows better; his imagination may be unrealistic, but he knows that the boy called Near who sleeps in that room is one of the quietest ones he has ever known.

Touching a hand to his short's pocket, he feels the cigarette box and feels calm. He walks towards the door, saying, "Oi, Near! What're you doin' in there?"

Behind him, the oldest boy's door is thrown open, and a blonde-haired man shouts into the hallway, "Who the hell is making all that noise?"

Eyes narrowing beneath tinted goggles, the young man turns towards the other. "Near," says the middle boy, throwing a thumb at the named boy's direction. "Something must be bothering him or somethin," continues the middle boy, who starts to retreat down the stairs.

"Oh, yeah, leave me to deal with the kid!" snorts Mello.

The other boy just shrugs and vanishes down the staircase.

"Damn it..." Mello stomps across the hallway and grabs Near's doorknob, twisting it open with a violent twitch. He pushes it in and checks the condition of the room.

The room is covered in knocked-down structures of legos, and link-n-logs; dice is scattered across the floor in the hundreds; plastic dinosaurs and Playmobil people lie in dead positions. Puzzle pieces stick up at odd angles from the carpet's interior.

And sitting on his bed, with his knees bent, and his toes curled up in balance, Near is holding on to his knees, his eyes wide and frantic. He stares at Mello with large gray eyes, his features shallow and dark.

Dumbstruck, Mello stares back, quiet. Then, with a quick look around the room, at the mess, his face wrinkles up into one of anger, and he says, "You're supposed to be the calm, resourceful one- but look at this!" he says, kicking an empty puzzle box across the room. Still feeling heated up, he knocks a fist into the open door, and says more loudly, "What the hell is wrong with you?" But laced in his anger, is fear. What had caused this quiet, emotionless boy to become to violent and secretive?

"Death Note..." whipsers Near.

"What..?" says Mello. He recalls hearing about that show from somewhere, but why Near would be shaken up by that, he didn't know.

Near jumps out of bed, his feet running as room as they touched the fabric. A puzzle piece gets wedged between his toe, but he ignores it, stopping his short run to stand inches from Mello's face.

Alarmed, the older man takes a step back, touching the back pocket where he gun is supposed to be. A hot lash of panic claws across his back when he finds his pocket empty; the gun is still under his mattress!

"We're all going to die." says the white-haired boy softly, his tone blank. "And we cant do anything about it."

Mello frowns, his teeth baring like a tiger. "What are you going on about?" he snaps. "We aint going to die!"

Near, his body slouched, his dark-ringed eyes unblinking, says, "She has the eyes; she knows our names and our faces... She is more cruel than God.."

"Who are you talking about!" Mello says, nearly yelling.

"Misa-Misa..." answers Near. "She is coming over this afternoon. In fact..." he rolls his head to the right, slowly, to look at the upside down digital clock in the floor. "...she should be here by now."

_Ding dong!_

Mello's heart skips a beat.

Watari's voice carries across the room, addressing Matt, the middle-aged, who watches Tv in the living room: "Mister Matt, it seems a young lady is at the door. Are we expecting company?"

"Hell if I know." comes the other's reply.

"We cannot escape her." says Near.

"Bull shit!" Mello lets out a nervous laugh, then turns, nearing running into the door. He bolts down the hallway and into his room. With frantic fingers, he digs under the mattress and grabs his gun.

Downstairs, the door opens.

Near walks to the top of the staircase, the puzzle-piece now irritating two of his toes; they begin to bleed, leaving streaks of red in the carpeted hall. He stands gazing down, his entire body shaking.

Mello practically knocks the white-haired boy into the wall, and he runs down the stairs, tripping over himself, his gun pointing.

Watari opens the door, steps back, and Mello fires his gun.

As if in slow motion, Watari, Misa, and Near watch in silence as Mello falls down the stairs, his limbs twisting and bouncing all the way down. Resting at Watari's feet, Mello's face is clearly seen; a nasty red hole is directly in his forhead, blood spattered along the stairs, and now leaking around the old man's black shoes.

Matt rushes into the room, saying urgently, "What happened?" But before he can even stop running, he legs give way and he falls into Watari, who grabs him instictively, saying his name.

A moment later, Watari slumps to the ground, folding over like a blanket over Matt's corpse.

With a slow, hellish smile, Misa raises her blue, blue eyes up to meet Near's gray ones.

Staring back, Near only says, "You cannot achieve life by killing the inno-" he grabs his chest, breaking off his words with a loud, "arrck!" loud, as if he is choking on blood.

Smiling, Misa flips her hair back behind her ears, turns, and leaves the house. She closes the door gently, the begins walking.

Behind her, the house is aloud with the sounds of destruction; tables flipping, tv shattering, bottles breaking; liquids are poured, wires are ripped: By the time she reaches the opposite side of the street, the house is in full blaze, with one voice crying out amongst the flames.

Misa opens her Death Note, and reads it with a happy obsession.

"10:05am, Nate Rivers sees the future, and knows that Misa is going to kill them all. He goes on a rampage, causing Michael Keehl to investigate. Nate tries to convience Michael, but fails.

"10:08am, Michael Keehl hears the door bell and gets his gun. He goes downstairs, but shoots himself instead, dying at 10:10am."

"9:55am, Mail Jeevas goes downstairs and plays his video game until 10:10am, and he runs into the entry-way, hearing a gunshot. But he dies of a heart-attack before figuring it out.

"10:07am, Quillsh Wammy(Watari) opens the door and allows Misa to come inside. He dies at 10:11am of a heart attack.

"10:12am, Nate Rivers destroys the house and pours flameable liquids all over the bodies, walls, and in every single room: He burns the entire house down in a way that none of their bodies will be recognizes. He stands in his flaming bedroom and dies by burning to death at 10:20am."

The notebook closes. Checking her watch, Misa glances up at the flaming building. She faintly hears the screams of agony from the top left room, yellow fire flickering in and out.

Tick.

The watch strikes 10:20am. And the cries cease immediately.

Laughing softly, the girl walks down the street in a skip, smiling up at the beautiful blue skies as gray smoke begins to overwhelm it.

...

Beep-beep! Beep-beep!

The small alarm clock on his desk sounds once the clock strikes 10:25am.

Moving away from his place at his desk, Light walks over to the window and stares out, waiting.

Laying open on his bed, the Death Note's written words are visable:

"5:00pm, Thursday, November 8th, 2006. Misa Amane leaves early from her camera shoot on the excuse that she isnt feeling well. Over the next three days, she tracks down and discovers the real names of Matt, Mello, Near, Watari, and L. On the third day, she kills everyone but L, making each of their deaths different, leaving the last one to burn all the evidence, along with himself.

"By 10:20am, Misa's work is finished and she goes to Light Yagami's house, ready to tell him L's real name. At 10:30, Misa leaves the house, politely excusing herself, and commits suicide by "tripping" and getting hit by a bus."

A small smile creeps over his lips as he sees the girl walking up the street, her face still smug from her victory.

Behind him, Ryuk begins to laugh.

...


End file.
